There exist various chemical and biological analysis techniques which employ radiation emitter tagging. One such technique is gel electrophoresis which produces a radiation tagged image having a multiplicity of lines on a gel, each line representing a molecular component of given characteristics.
Increasingly, for the purpose of research and large scale diagnostics it is desired to quantify the results obtained, such that computer analyses and operations can be applied thereto.
One existing technique is to contact print from the gel onto radiation sensitive film. This technique is extremely slow, due to the relatively low radiation intensity involved and can require days in order to obtain a useful result, which must then be digitized by the use of a densitometer.
There are also known apparatus and techniques for automated blot analysis, such as that exemplified in the Betascope 603 Blot Analyzer which is available from Betagen Corporation of 100 Beaver Street, Waltham Mass. 02154, U.S.A. The resolution of the blot analyzer described above is relatively low, about 1-2 mm.
There is also known a radioanalytical imaging system which operates by scanning a sample with an ionization gas detector and provides resolution to at least 0.8 mm. Approximately eight hours are required to produce an image by such a technique. Such a system is commercially available from AMBIS Systems of San Diego, Calif. 92123, U.S.A.
Automatic techniques for analysis of non-radioactive electrophoretic gels are also known. Apparatus and software employing such ,a technique is available from Pharmacia LKB Biotechnology AB, of Uppsala, Sweden under the trademarks UltroScan XL and GelScan XL.
Various types of radiation detectors are known in the detection art. Examples of papers in this area are the following:
A Highly Efficient Low-Pressure UV-Rich Detector with Optical Avalanche Recording by A. Breskin, R. Chechik et al, presented at the London Conference on Position Sensitive Detectors 7-11 September, 1987 Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A273 (1988) 798-804 (to be published in Nucl. Instrum. Methods);
A systematic study of the emission of light from electron avalanches in low pressure TEA and TMAE gas mixtures by D. Sauvage, A. Breskin and R. Chechik Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research;
On the Optical Readout of Gas Avalanche Chambers and its Applications, by M. Suzuki, A. Breskin et al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A263 (1988) 237-242;
Some Applications of the Imaging Proportional Chamber by G. Charpak, A. Breskin, R. Chechik et al, presented at the IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, San Francisco, 21-23 October 1987, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, NS-35, 483 (1988);
The Multistep Avalanche Chamber for Beta Radiochromatography by Ariella Cattai, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research 215 (1983) page 489.
The Multistep Avalanche Chamber as a Detector in Radiochromatograpy Imaging, by G. Petersen et al, Nuclear Instruments and Methods 176 (1980) 239-244;
An Improved Multistep Avalanche Detector System for Digital Autoradiography, by J. E. Bateman, et al, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A264 (1988) 430-435;
A Beta Ray Imaging Device for Radiochromatography,by Hoan Nguyen Ngoc et al, Nuclear Instruments and Methods 173 (1980) 605-607; and
Localization and Direct Quantitation of .sup.3 H-Labeled Proteins and RNAs in Slab Gels by a New Detection System, by Joachim Kruppa, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Vol. 113, No. 2, 1983, June 15, 1983, pp 703-709.